Currently, a dot printer is used to print on a booklet such as a passbook used by a financial institution. In addition to the printing on the booklet such as a passbook and the like, a business form such as a statement of account and the like is also issued. The printing on the business form is carried out by a thermal printer, and after printed with specific items, long-sized paper pulled out from paper wound in a roll shape is cut into a sheet having a specific length and then discharged. The dot printer and the thermal printer are arranged separately.
As the printers are arranged separately, it is necessary to arrange the power supply sections and the like separately, which leads to the large size and high cost of the machine. Thus, it is considered that the dot printing mechanism and the thermal printing mechanism share the same conveyance path.
Information which is not supposed to be seen by other persons, such as the deposit balance information and the like, is printed on the passbook or the business form printed by the printers. Thus, in the printers, a collection mechanism is known which collects the passbook or the business form a user forgets to take away to the inside of the main body of the printer after a given time elapses. As the allowed quantity of the collected media storage space of the collection mechanism is determined, the collection mechanism can only store a certain quantity of media. Therefore, it is known that a collection counting processing is carried out when collecting media, and if the count exceeds the count of the pre-determined allowed quantity, the collection operation is temporarily stopped.
When carrying out collection counting, if the sizes and the thicknesses of the collected media (e.g. paper money) are similar, error does not occur so much even if the collection counts of the collected media of different categories are made the same. However, in a case where the sizes and the thicknesses of the collected media are greatly different, if the collection counts of the collected media of different categories are made the same, occurrence of error increases, which leads to a problem that the actual quantity of the collected media exceeds the allowed quantity of the collected media storage space though the collection count of the collected media does not exceed the count of the pre-determined allowed quantity.